Search This Blog

Living with your landlord

I've been meaning to write about this for absolutely ages, but my time since leaving London seems to have flown by.

This probably applies mainly to those moving to London or another big city for work, as it tends to be in more expensive places that you might rent a room rather than a flat or house.

There were definite pros and cons to living in a house where the homeowner was one of the occupants, so I thought I share a bit of that list in case you're considering options for a move of your own.

My situation

To quickly summarise my own situation, I was working in London and rented a downstairs bedroom in a house not far from the tube station, for about 18 months. It was handy for my commute, in a family area and was a homely, quiet house. I lived with the homeowner, who was older and had begun renting out the rooms when her own children grew up and left home, and two other renters.

I was the only person living downstairs, and the only person who used the downstairs shower room. There was the homeowner and one renter upstairs, and another person had a sort of studio set-up on the very top floor. There was a shared kitchen with a table, then a private family room the homeowner used for herself and her own family when they visited.

My room was spacious, with lots of storage space and a big window facing out to the road at the front of the house.

I went through a very bad time with my mental health whilst living in that house, but this post will be about the factual pros and cons I discovered about the specific situation of having a live-in landlord.

Pros

It's in their interests to fix problems quickly

If they live in the house too, they're likely to move much more quickly when there's problems like faulty heating or damage in the property.

They're likely to be more picky about who lives in the house

My landlord took the time to have a good chat with people, because she knew she would be living with them. That meant I was fortunate enough to live with quiet, respectful, friendly people throughout my time there.

It felt very homely, because it was someone's permanent, long term home

The house had been a family home, and the landlord started to rent out the rooms once her own family moved out to start families of their own. That meant it had character and personality, and did feel like a family home, which really suited me.

Cons

There's a hierarchy in the household

However well you get on with your landlord and the other people in your house, there's the relationship of landlord/tenant at play. Their decision will always be the final decision and their way is the way things run. I also found myself steering clear of the kitchen when the landlord was using it alone or with family, as I was hyper-aware it was their house, even though I was paying to live there.

I felt I had to ask permission/seek approval for a lot of things (visitors etc)

I definitely tiptoed around quite a lot, and there were certain things that made me feel like I was still living with parents or grandparents. In my particular household, I had to ask advance permission if anyone was staying over, and guests were only seemingly allowed about a night a week, and not very often over the course of a month. The reasoning was I paid for the room for one person. Because it was the landlord's home, their rules and decisions were final, even if they seemed slightly unfair or dated. It meant whenever friends were coming down for the weekend I had to run it by someone to get permission granted, rather than just letting my housemates know out of general politeness.

Rules that apply to you don't necessarily apply to them or their visitors

I was very conscious of being respectful and quiet if and when I did have people over, or even when I was in my room alone. However, when the landlord's family were visiting there were children running and screaming around the house whilst I tried to work, loud conversations next to my room when I was trying to get to sleep etc. This didn't happen too often, but each time it did it reinforced that idea of there being a hierarchy.

Conclusion

Hopefully those are some helpful things to consider. Every situation and every landlord will be unique, but there are definite advantages and disadvantages to this particular set up. Think carefully about what's important to you, meet whoever you'll be living with and spend some time having a good chat to them, and make sure you establish any rules and boundaries from the word go.

The main piece of advice I'd give to myself, looking back, is to speak my mind a little more. It may be their home, but you're paying to live there - often a substantial amount, if you're in London. Be respectful, but also make sure you're not spending your days tiptoeing and feeling like you shouldn't even be there; you're paying to be there and have every right to feel safe, happy and comfortable.

Sophie x

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I’ve started a new thing over the past few months: replying to emails. I don’t mean work emails or emails from family – I of course already replied to those ones. I mean email newsletters. I’m signed up to the newsletters of a fair amount of writers and bloggers, all of whom write content I absolutely love to receive. They’re newsletters that I get excited about opening when they land in my inbox. A couple of months ago, I realised they’d never know how much I loved these letters to my inbox, emails which feel like they’re written only to me, unless I told them. So I told them.

Laura Jane Williams wrote a good few months ago about a feeling of not being good enough. I can’t remember then context exactly but she’d realised this feeling and had chosen to approach those feelings differently. In a relatively short email, she had summed up all the emotions I had been feeling that same week: nerves, excitement, mixed together with a feeling of ‘who cares, anyway?’ In the same email, I think she m…

Over the Bank Holiday weekend we went to see Disney's latest film offering, A Wrinkle in Time. It's based on a popular children's story of the same name, but I've never read that so these thoughts will be on the film in isolation, not on the way it's been adapted for the screen. I also knew nothing about the story before the film began.

Dr Alexander Murray has been missing for four years, disappearing shortly after claiming he could travel through time and the universe. His children, Meg and Charles Wallace, set off with a group of three travellers working in the fight of the light against the dark to try and find him.

There are some really wonderful messages in this film. The triumph of light over darkness, believing in yourself, empowering young people, the importance of every single individual and their place in the world, family... the list goes on.

It's got a pretty impressive cast, with the three Mrs' played by Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Min…

It's a return guest visit on the blog today - my dad's been to another amazing show and couldn't resist sharing his review. Read on for the tale of a wonderful night at The Royal Exchange. Mixtape ‘It’s theatre in the round, Jim, but not as we know it’ I’m a big fan of The Royal Exchange, Manchester and well used to sitting in a circle, with the players directly in front of me. But last night I was encircled by the cast, rather than the other way around. Because last night I went to see Mixtape – a new musical created and performed by the Young Company of this awesome theatre. The Young Company has just won Stage School of the Year 2018 and it’s not hard to see why. It includes a range of young people, from 14 to 25 who all collaborated to produce what was an exceptional show. I use the word show because the overall experience of last night is quite difficult to define. We entered the arena and it felt like we’d gained admission to a nightclub. Cast members were already in att…